San Francisco Aims to Speed up Supportive Housing Placement

The city wants to expedite the process for getting people into available housing units.

1 minute read

October 17, 2023, 12:00 PM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


A group of socially distanced tents for the homeless are set up on a parking lot in San Francisco's Civic Center.

nerriy / Shutterstock

An article in the Oakland Post outlines the city of San Francisco’s newly launched ‘Street to Home’ program aimed at getting unhoused people into permanent supportive housing faster. “By providing direct placement into housing units, the program aims to reduce the trauma and instability associated with homelessness with a path toward stability.”

According to the article, “The new program, in partnership with Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing (DISH), is part of the City’s ongoing commitment to bring people inside and connect them to a wide range of existing services and placements.” The city says that “By leveraging vacant units within HSH’s portfolio, this program will streamline the process of transitioning individuals from the streets to permanent housing, ensuring a more efficient and compassionate approach.”

For now, the program, which streamlines some of the bureaucratic requirements of placing people into housing, “can only be implemented on locally funded projects due to requirements at the federal level that the City cannot waive.” Mayor London Breed is asking the federal government to relax rules that would let San Francisco expand the program to more buildings.

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